Oddbods Combating Covid
Award-winning content creation, distribution and licensing studio One Animation has launched two digital experiences in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic aimed at helping children and families to adjust to the change in circumstances through its beloved, twice Emmy nominated global preschool comedy brand Oddbods.
Partnering with Google’s Rivet, the new global reading app from Google’s workshop for experimental projects (Area 120), One Animation is producing a range of 14 Oddbods books to help tackle child literacy levels. The app launched Oddbods titles in March, freely available via the Rivet app, and as a result of their success with young readers One Animation has struck a further deal with the company licensing two additional properties to Rivet: Insectibles and Antiks which will total 35 books.
In a further initiative, One Animation has collaborated with Weyo to develop “Oddbods Oddlife”, an app which helps kids develop healthy routines, such as brushing their teeth, calming down, and even falling asleep! Launching in February right as the pandemic began altering the daily lives of families across the world, “Oddbods Oddlife” offers coping mechanisms to children which help them to tackle life’s small challenges through fun games which harness their favourite characters along with face recognition technology. The app has seen 30% growth, month on month since launch.
Amir Biran, Digital Director at One Animation, commented: “We truly cherish our fans and with over 20M subscribers on YouTube we felt we had a responsibility to help parents and kids cope with the challenges presented by the pandemic. Through our partnerships with Rivet and Weyo we are able to leverage the Oddbods brand in a meaningful way to help kids with reading skills and routine daily tasks in a fun and exciting way.”
As One Animation looks to grow its digital offering, these new launches build on the success of its hit free mobile game “Oddbods Turbo Run”. Developed in collaboration with SEGA subsidiary, goGame, the endless runner game gives players the chance to take on the role of Fuse and run across Oddsville to collect as many Oddcoins as they can, while avoiding obstacles in their way. Since its launch in February 2019, the game has amassed 15M installs and been translated into 10 languages.
